Another shot of this church. Truly amazing.
Wowzer. Words fail me.
Icons abound here. Really beautiful they are too. There were a bunch of singing monks here as well and they were quite good.
A family that lived here, in a nearby village. The monk looks very Rasputin like. These would have been fairly well to do people. The woman's hairstylist should be shot, though.
We stopped at an island which was built by a F.O.P. as a replica of a russian village in centuries past, and had lots of tschothke's and such nonsense for sale. (fop=friend of putin). Wooden windwill used in ancient times to power the jacuzzi tubs.
Typcial river cruise boat. All of the companies use the same type of boats as they are the only ones allowed to use russian riverways and all are russian made, i believe. The old guy is fishing for tuna. Nice little trick shot that Nikki took. I had no clue when she was telling me to point my finger to the sky (i was thinking i was larry bird at the 88 allstar game in the 3point competition ;-)
This was a traditional style brothel, and on the rear had a slide/escape hatch.
Some of the traditional houses had very bright trim work which may be explained by the elevated levels of lsd in the diet.
Finally evening falls .... and this is after midnight
Even had rainbows. No crock of gold, and don't mention the "L" word.
On the way now .... fortress outside of St.Pete. Woooh ... scary ...
The subway in St.Pete. You are not supposed to take pics. I of course was taking pics. The angle of ascent/descent was so steep, it was positively Dutch (if you've been to the Nederlands, you will know what steep gradients they have on their stairs in order to squeeze space). Anyway I was taking pics, and suddenly everyone was looking at me. There was a security woman shouting at me in russian from her surveillance booth on the bottom using the PA system. Of course my russian is very rusty, and so i paid no heed. Friends with us who spoke russian alerted us, and we fully expected KGB to be waiting for us. No such luck. Similar to NY subway system in that no pics allowed. The global war on terruh.
The pink thingy again with the Stock Exchange in the background (see I did listen to my guide).
Church shot. Cool. edit: actually the Church of the Spilled Blood, where Tsar Alexsandr II was asassinated
Canal tour shot .... of same church. Great colors on these buildings around town.
Our trusty guide, Olga. School teacher and follower of the party line for the most part. Probably an unfair comment, but she did spout the Putin line in various lectures. We all can attest to the power of the media to shape opinion. Witness the run up to war in this country recently. She was a nice lady though and friendly guide.
Ok, it got to be a bit much, but this was about 9pm at night ... and we were jetlagged on our 1st few days. Remember we arrived on the 21st and it was the season of the White Nights. Daylight until 2am or so, and then bright again in a few hours.
The Venice of the North. If they could only solve their traffic problems by using these canals for public transportation, it would be great. Traffic is a "fookin diseaster", as they say in Dublin.
Beautiful church eh?
Burial site of Tsar Alexsandr III, I believe
El Tovar Lodge porch on South Rim of Grand Canyon, after a long day in the saddle, and it's time to have a beer with your friends ... from left
Jared (center) explaining to Brian (on left) the mysteries of the universe, and how to light a fire by rubbing two sticks together, if your porsche cigarette lighter fails to work.
Bill, wearing his George Kennedy Cool Hand Luke mirror shades, breaking the sad news to me that Spurs lost again. At least they did not lose to Arsenal.
If Sigmund Freud, ever developed a mid-life crisis, bought a porsche and drove it across america wearing aviator shades and pink t-shirts, he might look like this :-) But what would he make of the yellow french lenses ???
Dave Conklin, wunder-mechanic/photojournalist/wit/sarcasm dripper, in this wonderful shot where he is repairing Randy Stenson's fuel line, somewhere in Oklahoma or Texas. Randy smelled fuel and pulled over, and he was right ... leaky fuel line. So Dave happened to have fuel hose with him. Another practical tip for those of you jokesters out there thinking of emulating this bunch ;-)
Last laugh on me of course. Here is Dave pictured facing camera, with Ed May knelling to the right. Ed is owner mechanic of famous Mayo Performance in Texas, and the man i owe a debt of gratitude for swapping my fuel pump on the road, and getting me road worthy. Ed, you are the greatest.
Aaron winans, co-owner of Zuffenhaus (big time Porsche shop in Charlotte), who helped Ed get my car on the road. Aaron, you are also da man, with Ed. Thank you. Picture with him in glassed is Marco Gerace. Marco is a great guy, top Porsche mechanic at the place his dad and he own/run called TLG autos in LA. Sponsored our track lunch they did. Boy can those guys drive!
Curt Egerer, chaptermeister of Mid West Rgruppe chapter, point man, radar rabbit, soul of the reckless posse .... Curt once sawed his ipod in half just to see what it was made of inside (not-so-crazy mo-fo did this once he had procured a newer replacement of course).
